My experience with Windows 8 64bit is that I have to tolerate it …. 
the only reason that I use it is because I wanted to run SONAR X3 ...no other reason ….
 
Kenny

robert_e_bone
@kristoffer - the Wi-Fi adapters can be present, but you would want to temporarily disable it or turn it off prior to launching Sonar, and you can enable it or turn it back on after you finish your Sonar session.  Wi-Fi adapters are famous for massive latency spikes, but the turning off or disabling workaround fixes the problem.
 
Bob Bone

Yep, but I found it more easy just to remove it (it was a USB adapter) and run a network cable directly to the DAW. This way the backup is faster also (Windows Home Server) 
So, hassle-free it is :)
 
Now, I'm starting to look at a touch screen... 
To complement my FW1884 

Regret...
 
I wish there were an easy way to go back to Win 7. That was the high water mark for desktop users.  If I could do so easily, I would go back to Win 7 today.
 
The main reason I upgraded to win 8 was that there were posts on this board about Win 8 doing a better job balancing the cores of the CPU when Sonar is used. Maybe it does, I can't tell.  I still have lots of imbalance in the core usage that forces me to freeze tracks in order to manage them as soon as the project becomes large.  I'm not saying that is wrong or bad, just saying it adds to the workload and management of Sonar. I had hopes and dreams of Win 8 making a real difference in that department. If it does, its very marginal.
 
There were many improvements and enhancements going from Win 7 to 8 to 8.1.  Still, Microsoft fundamentally tried to take a right hand turn with Win 8 and become more Apple like.  Win 8 - you must sign in to microsoft each time.  Metro apps take over the screen... multitasking becomes much more tedious. For those who are simply playing with their ipads that one-app-at-a-time makes good sense.  Dumb things down for the average user. But for those people like myself who multitask all the time, and do real work with their computer that requires many things working together, metro holds zero interest.
 
One could argue that in Win 8 you can stay on familiar turf of the desktop. Maybe so.  I know I stay there.  But sometimes I get so frustrated at Microsoft when I watch someone, particularly older people, try to make use of hard won knowledge in windows and being totally baffled at the results.
 
Microsoft was once an innovative Goliath. Now its just a Goliath that still believes it can set the course and all of us must follow.  Maybe true. But I think it did a major disservice to users in WIn 8's course change to force so much change at once.  That would have been much more palatable if the end result was something that promoted increased productivity to the majority of users. But the end result is too often confusion.
 
End rant.
 
Rick
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

LJB
Thanks for the input guys. Other than features as selling points, how stable is 8.1? (which is more my reason for looking at the change). Does one still get odd pauses, a crash or two a day etc etc as with Win 7? How smooth does the system run, and how well does it manage resources? Thanks, I just saw Markyzno's reply regarding this..

Its very stable. 

The only reason to go Win 8 is if you want touchscreen support.   Otherwise, why risk it?

John
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/10/better-on-the-inside-under-the-hood-of-windows-8/
 
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2007/03/pretty-vista/
 
The above links will help explain why Vista then Windows 7 and finally Windows 8 are so much better than the last version. Vista, that so many bash was the revolution. A clean break for 16 bit code. Windows 7 improved on Vista and now Windows 8 is the state of the art OS. If people don't like it its because they don't understand it. It was the same story with X1. 
 
Those that seem to always bash a new OS have no clue what goes on under the hood. All they seem to see is the GUI and nothing else. 

 
 
Most long term daw users are also strong window users. Most can peek into and tweak registries, ini files etc. I like a lot of the improvements - however - those same improvements in performance could have been packaged more traditionally. I think MS would do well to offer a version without apps. I don't want any unneeded resources pulling on my daw. I want it lean and mean. I look into the task manager of Win 8 and see a lot of apps loaded and ready to launch. They may not be pulling a lot on the cpu / memory, but I want them gone. I get the feeling that all this bloat is dismissed with the thought that us users will just have to buy more powerful computers. That's fine if doing that would allow me to tremendously extend the power of my daw. But a more powerful computer is incremental at a certain point if the operation system is expecting more power to use for its' existence. 
 
 
 

If your drivers support Win 8.1 and it is a new installation I'd recommend 8.1. I find it very stable. And while I'm not a big fan of the Start Page/Metro (I boot to the Desktop where I have them Pinned to the TaskBar) I have everyone of my major tools Pinned to the Start Page so that I can open them from there if I want. I don't understand the statement above about not being able to multitask in Win 8 or 8.1. I can float through all open applications using <Alt><Tab> just like I've been able to do since Win 3.1 even if they are opened from the Start Page.
 
With the recent deprecation of Win XP I would point out that if you build a new system based on Win 7 it will be obsolete sooner than 8.1. Of course this assumes your drivers support 8.1.
 
As I mentioned above I'm not a big fan of the Start Page, that said however, Microsoft's attempt at unifying the user experience across multiple platforms is admirable in my opinion. I have a Surface RT that I tote around with me and while it is pretty much useless for compute heavy tasks it a great little tool to have available...the fact that it can have the same look and feel as my DAW is a bonus in my opinion.
 
Regards,

musicroom

John
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/10/better-on-the-inside-under-the-hood-of-windows-8/
 
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2007/03/pretty-vista/
 
The above links will help explain why Vista then Windows 7 and finally Windows 8 are so much better than the last version. Vista, that so many bash was the revolution. A clean break for 16 bit code. Windows 7 improved on Vista and now Windows 8 is the state of the art OS. If people don't like it its because they don't understand it. It was the same story with X1. 
 
Those that seem to always bash a new OS have no clue what goes on under the hood. All they seem to see is the GUI and nothing else. 

 
 
Most long term daw users are also strong window users. Most can peek into and tweak registries, ini files etc. I like a lot of the improvements - however - those same improvements in performance could have been packaged more traditionally. I think MS would do well to offer a version without apps. I don't want any unneeded resources pulling on my daw. I want it lean and mean. I look into the task manager of Win 8 and see a lot of apps loaded and ready to launch. They may not be pulling a lot on the cpu / memory, but I want them gone. I get the feeling that all this bloat is dismissed with the thought that us users will just have to buy more powerful computers. That's fine if doing that would allow me to tremendously extend the power of my daw. But a more powerful computer is incremental at a certain point if the operation system is expecting more power to use for its' existence. 
 
 
 

Apparently not. The misinformation that is still being posted seems to counter that notion. So many people here have made it clear that Windows 8 can be modified to eliminate the start screen yet we see all sorts of bashing of Windows 8 because of the start screen. If these people really knew about Windows 8 they wouldn't still be echoing this. 
 
Then the comment that "The only reason to go Win 8 is if you want touchscreen support. Otherwise, why risk it?" seems to indicate that either people don't do any research or have read only the information from Windows bashers. Notice that those here that are running 8.1 say it is working well so why add the "why risk it"? I don't believe anyone has ever said Windows 8 is an unstable OS.
 
That small comment also dismisses all the improvements that Windows 8/8.1 offers for the DAW user.  

I did not have Windows crashes or instability with either 7 or 8.
 
You DO want to do your homework and make sure drivers exist and are stable.
 
Bob Bone

robert_e_bone
I did not have Windows crashes or instability with either 7 or 8.
 
You DO want to do your homework and make sure drivers exist and are stable.

 
For all that's been written here, I think this statement is the most important and relevant issue regarding a move to Windows 8 - as long as you have good driver support for your hardware, Windows 8 is a good move. It's a newer OS and the most advanced version of Windows for home users. The issues of the GUI/Metro/charms can all be dealt with, but if you don't have solid driver support you should wait to upgrade until that support is available.
 
 

flameoutThere were many improvements and enhancements going from Win 7 to 8 to 8.1.  Still, Microsoft fundamentally tried to take a right hand turn with Win 8 and become more Apple like.  Win 8 - you must sign in to microsoft each time.  Metro apps take over the screen... multitasking becomes much more tedious. For those who are simply playing with their ipads that one-app-at-a-time makes good sense.  Dumb things down for the average user. But for those people like myself who multitask all the time, and do real work with their computer that requires many things working together, metro holds zero interest.

 
You've articulated this well and I totally agree. I think that Microsoft, in trying to get one-up on Apple, got ahead of itself in trying to force all Windows users into the Metro paradigm and only ended up portraying itself as being amazingly out of touch with their established user base.
 
And BTW, you can log onto Windows 8 without setting up a Microsoft account - it's an almost hidden option which I'll bet most users miss.